soffit (sofit)

[F. soffite = Sp. sofito, suffix.] 1. In S 5748 A great elm-tree spread its broad branches over it [Van Ta el's farmhouse], at the foot of which bubbled up a spring of the softest and sweetest water, in a little well formed of a barrel. Irving, Sketch-Book, p. 427. 5. Unsized: as, soft paper.-6. Mild: noting the weather. (a) Open; genial. The nyght was feire and clere, and a softe weder in the myddill of Aprill. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 240. The wild hedge-rose Of a soft winter. Tennyson, Queen Mary, iii. 6. (b) Moist; wet or rainy: as, a soft day. Thames. It was a gray day, damp and soft , with no wind; one of those days which are not unusual in the valley of the Mrs. Oliphant , Poor Gentleman, xxxix. (c) Warm enough to melt snow or ice; thawing. [New Eng.] 7. In phonetics , pronounced with more or le of a sibilant sound and without explosive ut- terance, as e in cinder as opposed to e in can- dle , g in gin as opposed to g in gift ; also often used instead of sonant or voiced or the like for an alphabetic sound uttered with tone.-8. Tender; delicate. S And of youre softe [var. white ] breed nat but a shyvere,... Thanne hadde I with yow hoomly suffisaunce. arch.: (a) The under horizontal face of an architrave between columns. (b) The lower surface of an arch. (c) The ceiling of a room, when divided by cro -beams into panels, compartments, or lacunaria. (d) The under face of an overhanging cornice, of a projecting balcony, an entablature, a staircase, etc.-2. In scene painting, a border. See scene, 4. s, s, Soffits ( a ) and (b).